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I had the Battle of the Chicken Yard with a coopers hawk once. Sadly, I won. The hawk would come in, zig-zagging under the canopy, like Eric said, picking off our young chickens. I can't believe I actually got it with a .22. If I ever have chickens again, they will have netting over them. Though it was over 40 years ago, shooting that raptor was hard on my spirit.

And you're lucky the statute of limitations has expired on that Federal offense you committed there Ol' Bob. Migratory Bird Treaty and all.

My wife, who is a licensed Falconer in the State of Oregon concurs with Eric's fine diagnosis. Falcons wouldn't hunt in the trees.

The TreeLove smack is priceless!

Hath this whole world been mired in madness?
Remain ye men of faculty complete,
Of full arithmetic and prudence fair,
Attending to our noble bond and contract?
Or does here stand the last remaining man
To give a fig for rules and order yet,
No noble savage, but a stave unbroken
Who loves the law and bids it no misdeed.
Iíll not be bent to lawlessness. Mark it nought, if we be men of honour.

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And you're lucky the statute of limitations has expired on that Federal offense you committed there Ol' Bob. Migratory Bird Treaty and all.

Coming out of L.A. a dumb kid, and basically taught no respect for nature, taught by my father to kill any and all predators, actually, I have evolved so far as to not shoot at any wildlife. Marauding dogs and killer tomcats best stay wide of here though.

Forty years ago, I worked with a guy who told me that if I ate meat and didn't do my own butchering, I was just making Safeway my hired gun. I took this idea to heart. I raised meat for some years and found it hard to know the animals I ate. I took up hunting and ended up quitting all meat for years. I'll still murder fish and eat them, but I don't buy any meat. We've all agreed to make Lucky Mud and my adjoining property a wildlife sanctuary, which is the first reason we don't want dogs brought here.

I've worked with the Fish and Game cop and the Sheriff's Dept. to bust poachers. I wrote a public letter critical of hounding and got seriously beaten up for my trouble and told I was being taken out to the woods to be killed. I think I've paid some dues at this point. Many of my "No Hunting" signs got painted over last year. The hunters are pissed because I put my signs too high up to be easily taken down. I think the surveyors painted my signs with their paint can extensions.

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Coming out of L.A. a dumb kid, and basically taught no respect for nature, taught by my father to kill any and all predators, actually, I have evolved so far as to not shoot at any wildlife. Marauding dogs and killer tomcats best stay wide of here though.

Forty years ago, I worked with a guy who told me that if I ate meat and didn't do my own butchering, I was just making Safeway my hired gun. I took this idea to heart. I raised meat for some years and found it hard to know the animals I ate. I took up hunting and ended up quitting all meat for years. I'll still murder fish and eat them, but I don't buy any meat. We've all agreed to make Lucky Mud and my adjoining property a wildlife sanctuary, which is the first reason we don't want dogs brought here.

I've worked with the Fish and Game cop and the Sheriff's Dept. to bust poachers. I wrote a public letter critical of hounding and got seriously beaten up for my trouble and told I was being taken out to the woods to be killed. I think I've paid some dues at this point. Many of my "No Hunting" signs got painted over last year. The hunters are pissed because I put my signs too high up to be easily taken down. I think the surveyors painted my signs with their paint can extensions.

More importantly than "paying your dues" you have genuinely learned the error of your younger ways and the unfortunate teachings you were raised with...obviously you still feel pain over this...you probably always will...I hit a hawk with my suby a couple years ago and it still fills me with anguish when I think about it...nearly had to give up driving, I felt like I was some kind of traveling death machine (cats, small birds, chippies, frogs, newts...the hawk was the worst)...

You are living a lifestyle of care and compassion and I'm sure the spirit of that chickenhawk knows you are different, changed and wiser man than you once were.

and that's a total bummer about your signs being painted over and people hassling you about hounding...I've had a little bit of trouble with drunk ass poachers, but really good support from the county sheriff and state troopers out here and haven't had any trouble for the last couple of years.

peace threw disc golf,
emmarose

"'There are two mantras.,' Bernard said, 'Yum and yuk. Mine is yum.'"
Tom Robbins, Still Life With Woodpecker

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Pulling into Milo a couple years ago for the Hab Rec I had a strange deja vu back to my youth hunting...I remember thinking how much better it was to be throwing than hunting since success in the latter basically means winding up the day armpits deep in the corpse of another beast.

People with big opinions about their need/right/proclivity to eat meat who have never taken an animal from cradle to plate are people with uninformed opinions.

Granted, after 15 years of not eating much meat at all, I have taken to calling bacon a fruit...time for some reflection I suppose...

Coming out of L.A. a dumb kid, and basically taught no respect for nature, taught by my father to kill any and all predators, actually, I have evolved so far as to not shoot at any wildlife. Marauding dogs and killer tomcats best stay wide of here though.

Forty years ago, I worked with a guy who told me that if I ate meat and didn't do my own butchering, I was just making Safeway my hired gun. I took this idea to heart. I raised meat for some years and found it hard to know the animals I ate. I took up hunting and ended up quitting all meat for years. I'll still murder fish and eat them, but I don't buy any meat. We've all agreed to make Lucky Mud and my adjoining property a wildlife sanctuary, which is the first reason we don't want dogs brought here.

I've worked with the Fish and Game cop and the Sheriff's Dept. to bust poachers. I wrote a public letter critical of hounding and got seriously beaten up for my trouble and told I was being taken out to the woods to be killed. I think I've paid some dues at this point. Many of my "No Hunting" signs got painted over last year. The hunters are pissed because I put my signs too high up to be easily taken down. I think the surveyors painted my signs with their paint can extensions.

Last edited by erp; August 30th, 2009, 05:13 PM.
Reason: I was a little groggy during the original posting...

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Wow. My son and I were at Lakewood yesterday evening and had an interesting experience at the tee on 11. We had just arrived at the tee and heard some loud scuffling way up in one of the really tall trees. We looked up just in time to see this squirrel falling to earth. I thought for sure we were going to witness something ugly.

With it's legs stretched out it reminded me of a skydiver and I swear it had one of those cartoon "surprised" looks just like this It belly-flopped on the leaves and grass and one of it's young immediately landed just a foot away. The adult popped right up and went into defensive mode to guard it's young one, which was squealing loudly. It looked okay but wasn't positive as the adult put a firm bite on it and headed back up the tree.

My son and I just stood there in disbelief at what we'd just witnessed. Looked like it'd all ended well as we drove up the hill off the tee.

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My daughter played a round at Lake Stevens last year and someone in her group threw a hard drive into one of the big fir trees. Unfortunately, it also hit a grey squirrel that was climbing the tree and it died on impact. They said a couple squirrel prayers and buried it nearby.

That could have traumatized her if she already wouldn't have been traumatized by just being my daughter.....

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Those pics are from a nine hole course I built at my dad's house in Redmond. I tried to organize a work party on Sat. to clean it up and get it playable as it has acouple years of growth on it at the moment. The deer where the only ones who showed up and all they did was poop and look at me funny. But Bambi her mom and I got a full days work in anyway and unless I break both my arms I will be getting it nice and parked out after the tournament season settles down.